Sometimes you just have to put aside being a photographer and enjoy the show–blurry photos or not. Photographers have a hard time with this concept, especially event photographers like myself. We get caught up in our next best photos that we never get to experience events with our own eyes anymore. Mayer Hawthorne’s concert did well to keep me in check.

Since relocating to Philadelphia, I haven’t really had an opportunity to photograph with the 5D MkII. However I’ve developed a bad habit with photographing everything on my iPhone 5. This almost ruined my time at Union Transfer, the venue for the evening. I found myself reaching for my pocket any time Mayer Hawthorne did something new with his set: a change of pace, a change in light, whether be performed nearer to me, or when he started to engage the crowd.

But then he took a little break from singing to take an Instagram photo with the crowd, see if you can spot me:

Then he promptly told us to take the opportunity to take photos of him so that we can put away our phones for the rest of the night and enjoy the event the old fashioned way–with our very own eyes.

I took his advice seriously and kept my iPhone in my pocket for the rest of the night. It allowed me to actually enjoy the songs: to sing along and dance to them with the better half. For a lot of the events I’ve attended in my lifetime, I can’t really say that I’ve enjoyed them. They have always been work, and the photos always needed to get to someone immediately after. This is coming from someone who loathes post-processing. My only job for the evening was to enjoy the show and appreciate what a steal the ticket prices were.